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Doctor accused of using whips, chains in ‘punishment therapy’ for depression

When a patient filed a complaint about a doctor using “punishment therapy,” Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives found whips, chains, blindfolds, handcuffs and sexual paraphernalia in the exam room of Dr. David Simon, a Lake Worth osteopath.

Still, Simon claimed the sex was with a former patient and was consensual.

Saying that the sex was consensual is not an unusual defense when a doctor is accused of sexual misbehavior with a patient — even though state law explicitly prohibits any such kind of personal relationship.

Simon allegedly used the “punishment therapy” on a patient who suffered from depression.

Simon and the Health Department worked out a settlement for two years probation and a $10,000 fine, but the Board of Osteopathic Medicine rejected it in November 2013.

“If there was ever a time that this board would revoke a license for sexual misconduct, this is it,” said Dr. Ronald Burns, then board chairman. “We cannot have an osteopathic physician behaving like this.”

Simon’s attorney said that the complaint amounted to “adventurous sex between two adults” and threatened to challenge the board in front of an administrative judge.

The woman told sheriff investigators that the whipping started in late 2010. She didn’t want to do it, but Simon insisted it had helped others. After a “three-hour scary torture session” in November 2011, she called it quits, according to a Health News Florida story.

Though Simon said the sex occurred after she stopped being his patient, detectives found the items — the whips and chains — associated with sadomasochistic sex in the exam room. She said Simon left her tied up in a closet then choked her. The following month she attempted suicide and was hospitalized, according to state records.

Simon, who is still practicing, declined to comment when contacted by The Post.